The reliability of power companies depends on many factors such as the weather, usage spikes, short circuits, accidents or other damage to transmission lines or power stations. Certain locations may be particularly prone to blackouts. Low lying areas may be susceptible to floods. Coastal areas may be susceptible to hurricanes. High usage geographic areas may be susceptible to rolling blackouts.
Any breaks in power utility service may be unacceptable to customers, and some businesses may have mission critical systems, such as computer systems in call centers or refrigerators in grocery stores, that rely on constant power. In other businesses such as hospitals, lives may be lost if the power to a respirator is interrupted. These customers may rely on a backup source of power.
One backup source of power is a generator. The generator, or multiple generators, is connected to the power system instead of or in addition to the power utility service. When multiple generators are connected, the generators may communicate with one another through a communication system. Further, switching logic for switching between the power utility service and one or more generators may communicate with the generators via a communication system. However, the communication system may be difficult to install and configure for some users, and the communication system may be prone to failures or other errors.